Bananas anyone?Ok, so what have I been up to. Well I celebrated New Year´s in Granada with a big bunch of people from the hostel. We all had dinner in the hostel and then went out into the central park and main street. It was funny thinking that you guys had already counted it in hours before me. I also met up with Natalie, the photo is dark but I didn´t really take any other photos that night, well none to put up here!On New Year´s Day, Brenda and myself walked down to the lake front. Granada is on Laco Nicaragua which is the largest lake in Central America. It´s also the only body of fresh water in the world that has sharks, which migrate up a river from the Caribbean. Well that day, we saw hundreds of Nica families enjoying a day out. It was the first time on the trip that I saw families really enjoying themselves.There was also lots of really good street food, I don´t know what these are called, but they are some type of mazie tortilla filled with a salty cheese and they are really good:The next day I went up to a crator lake called Laguna de Apoyo, near Granada. It was beautiful up there and a great place to relax and read a book. It is famous for it´s crystal clear waters, however when I was there it was really windy and the water was cloudy. But still good fun to swim in ( thanks Ramage for the suggestion):After that, I headed down to the pacific coast to San Juan del Sur. This is a big surfer hangout and there was a real feel of Newquay in Cornwall.But then comes another highlight of the trip. I didn´t know about it when I decided to go to San Juan, but there was an annual sea turtle landing going on for a few nights. So a lady came to the hostel and gave us a presentation and slideshow, telling us all about the turtles in Nicaragua and about the Olive Ridley turtles which we would see. She told us how to make as little impact as possible and how to observe them but let them do their thing in peace. We were only allowed use red lights and never take a photo with a flash around the head (eyes) of the turtles. So off we went on the back of a flat bed truck, for an hour along a durt road to the protected beach of La Flor. Armed rangers patrol the area stopping egg poachers stealing the turtles eggs, which would earn them a very high price on the market. We first got the chance to release some babies into the sea. The rangers collect any turtles that hatch during the day and let them go at night. They would just be eaten by birds if they tried to make it to the water in the daytime. The best quote of the evening was " lets go liberate the babies!"Then we saw hundreds of turtles land on the beach and slowly make their way up the sand to dig a hole and lay their eggs. Each one lays about 100 eggs, but only 1 egg in 1000 makes it to adulthood. As we were watching, a big group of loud people came onto the beach with really bright white lights and started touching turtles and digging at their holes to get a better look at the eggs. They were doing everything we were told not to do. We were then told by one ranger to let them do what they wanted because it was the Minister for the Environment on a publicity tour, making a film to go out on the news. Ironic eh? Anyway, it was really a magical experience. We were told the next day that 4,300 turtles arrived that night to lay their eggs.I was going to spend the next dat exploring the beaches and coastline, but it was really stormy weather and I didn´t fancy being sand blasted, so I decided to move on. Well it turned out to be the first and only stressful day of my trip so far. I took two buses to the border and then spent nearly 3 hours crossing into Costa Rica. You had to queue for a ticket, then queue for it to be stamped, then queue for a gate to another ticket line and on and on and on.... there were so many imigrants trying to get into Costa Rica, thousands of people waiting in line and little old me in the middle. Well I got through and then took a bus to my next stop, only it turned out the bus wasn´t going that far, so I got another bus to somewhere else to try and get a connection to where I wanted to go, only the buses in my guide book didn´t exist. So I chose another place, but didn´t get there either. I finally got to a kinda nice place called Tilaran.By this time it was really blowing a storm, which added to my dispearing mood. Nothing really bad happened, I guess I had it so easy till now that it seemed stressful. I knew it was going to be a bad day when I got on the first bus and realised I left my shorts in the hostel, thats 20% of my clothes gone! Oh well, I guess I´ll have to go shopping!!!

Next morning I got to La Fortuna and the very first thing I saw when I entered the town was a row of kayaks... with my wavesport EZG, so all was good again. A good omen! I settled in, had a nice skype chat with my friend Sara and went off to see some wildlife. I wasn´t dissapointed. I saw lots, more than the last two months put together. Must of it was up in the canopy and my little camera didn´t capture it very well. Along with howler and white faced monkeys, I saw a Sloth:Lots of Tucans:And this little dude called a White Nose Coate:
That evening I went to some hot springs. The area is very volcanically active and many of the rivers and streams are as hot as your bath.Well that brings me up to date. Highs and Lows in the last few days. Thanks to Mickle and Sara for their messages and thanks to all who tried to contact me. I don´t have a mobile so best way to reach me is through email.

roz.leahy @ gmail.com (no spaces)


I might go have a closer look at that EZG.. xxx R